Tag Archives: irrational fears study

Believe it or not, 84% of us admit to holding onto fears that we know are irrational – and the workplace is a hotbed for those insecurities.

Are you one of those people? Like the kind of person who writes an email and thoroughly checks and double checks the addresses you’re sending it to, only to experience that awful sinking feeling that by chance you’ve sent it to the wrong person? Even though you could swear you’ve addressed it correctly, you can’t stop yourself from frantically checking your sent items for validation.

What about making coffee in front of the boss? Are you worried that your normally steady hand will inexplicably turn into a quivering coffee-sprinkler, designed to spill as much of the brown stuff on as many people as possible. And does that worry keep you from even trying to make the coffee in the boss’ presence?

It seems that nearly all of us have some irrational workplace fears that prevent us from doing things. If that means not having a cup of coffee, it’s probably not a big deal. But if it prevents the implementation of a new project that could bring cost savings and time efficiencies, that’s a different matter.

Sound extreme? Well, according to our Mozy survey 37% of IT managers said that they’d had projects rejected because of managerial fears. And 55% say their company perceives the adoption of technology as a risk.

The ability to recognize risk is an essential business skill, but automatically dismissing projects as risky – irrationally – means that companies can really miss out.

The IT managers surveyed highlighted just how arbitrary decision making can be by revealing which buzzwords invoke an irrational fear from their bosses. If you’re pitching Mozy to your manager, does it matter whether you call it “online backup,” “cloud backup,” “backup on demand” or “backup as a service”?

The answer is “backup on demand”! 53% of IT managers say “on demand” helps their proposals compared with 15% for “as a service.” It’s true. And conversely, 17% say “as a service” hinders their pitch compared to just 5% for “on demand.”

Want to know more about the best and worst buzzwords to use if you want budget sign off? Or do you want to know how many people secretly think the photocopier is plotting against them? Read the full findings of Mozy’s research here.